The newest Dexter series has just kicked off with Original Sin Episode 1, “And in the Beginning…”, giving fans an insight into how Dexter Morgan came to be one of the most famous fictional serial killers.
In the midst of Dexter spinoffs (landing right between the release of New Blood and Resurrection), Dexter: Original Sin goes back to 1991 when Dexter was a quiet, lonely surgeon-in-waiting with a thirst for blood.
The first episode of the prequel explores how killing was always part of his destiny, as well as the one case that drove him to make that first violent kill.
If you’re looking for a breakdown of everything that happened in Dexter: Original Sin Episode 1, look no further: we’ve got everything you need to know below. (Warning: major spoilers ahead!)
A killer’s life flashes before his eyes in Dexter: Original Sin Episode 1
Picking up exactly where the New Blood finale left off, Dexter (Michael C. Hall) is bleeding out to death in the snow. He’s picked up and taken to a hospital, where doctors frantically try to bring his heart back. They succeed, and Dexter starts reliving his youth, beginning with the moment of his birth.
Flashing forward, a younger Dexter (Patrick Gibson) is a student training to be a surgeon. As he practices on a body in front of his teacher and other students, he’s mercilessly teased. However, he gets praise from his teacher, despite not feeling anything as he looks at the body. (“No blood,” he notes, disappointed.)
Meanwhile, his father, Harry Morgan (Christian Slater), is working on a crime scene, alongside Captain Aaron Spencer (Patrick Dempsey) and Head of Forensics Tanya Martin (Sarah Michelle Gellar). It’s the brutal murder of two parents and a child. At that point, they don’t have any leads.
Harry investigates a serial killer
At the dinner table, Dexter sits with his father and sister, Debra (Molly Brown). His father, in an attempt to get Dexter out and socialize, makes a deal with Debra: she can go to a party happening over the weekend, but she has to take her brother. Horrified, she storms out.
When they’re alone, Dexter laments to his father about how his practice didn’t satisfy any of his urges, worrying that becoming a surgeon isn’t going to quell his temptation to kill. (Clearly, Harry has been helping him address these dark desires, with surgery as a career being their idea of a solution.) But Harry assures him they will find a way through.
The next day, Dexter arrives at school at the University of Miami. He walks through a job fair, feeling uninspired until he spots a forensics display, with photos of real dead bodies posted around. Drawn to the images, he tries to talk to Vince Masuka, who works with his father but gets pushed aside so Vince can attempt to talk to the pretty female students.
At Miami Metro, Captain Spencer yells at the team about the unsolved rise in murders that have resulted in eight people dead. They have a serial killer on their hands. Thankfully, Tanya comes in and provides them with a suspect who has matching footprints from one of the scenes: Levi Reed. They quickly head to his house, a squad team sneaking in and arresting him while he’s in the shower.
Trouble at the party for Dexter and Deb
At home, Dexter reads a collection of clippings he’s saved about Ted Bundy and other famous killers, who serve as hero figures of sorts for him. He spends all his time fantasizing about killing, despite never actually having killed anyone by his hand. His reading is interrupted when Deb comes in to take him to the party and thinks he’s been looking at a nudie magazine.
When they arrive, Deb ditches him to go drink, leaving Dexter to wander around by himself. Chaos breaks out when Deb’s friend alerts him that a drunk Debra has been locked into a bedroom with a frat guy, so he bolts upstairs and breaks in.
Finding Debra unconscious with the boy on top of her, Dexter grabs him and throws him down the stairs. A fight breaks out, and Dexter is just moments away from grabbing a knife before Deb herself pushes him away. They’re kicked out, and Deb tells him off for humiliating her.
They get back past curfew, finding Harry waiting for them, who tells them to go to bed. We then flashback to several years before, when Harry finds his young son, Junior, drowned at the bottom of the swimming pool. Distraught, his wife Doris comes home and screams at the sight of their son’s body being taken away.
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Harry’s health takes a turn
The following day, Harry takes Dexter for one of their regular hunting trips. As Dexter explains via narration, they go hunting as a way to satisfy Dexter’s thirst for bloodlust. But as they walk, Dexter tells him the hunting trips aren’t working for him anymore.
He wants to graduate to killing, using the “code” his father taught him, but Harry dissuades him. Revealing the events from the night before, Dexter also tells him how much he wanted to kill the boy who assaulted Deb.
Then, something tragic happens. As Dexter is talking, Harry gets a pain in his arm and collapses to the ground. He’s having a heart attack. Dexter rushes him to the hospital, getting separated from Harry when the doctors take him away.
Dexter and Deb are in the waiting room when they get the news that Harry is still alive. The doctor explains to them that Harry had a heart blockage, and he’ll need to manage his stress and live a healthy life going forward. Dexter tries to comfort Deb as Harry stays in hospital for the week, but distressed at the idea of losing their father, she has a breakdown and throws the food from their fridge onto the floor.
Dexter discovers a killer
The week passes by with Harry not getting much better. Dexter takes the time to observe moments of grief in the hospital, becoming even more obsessed with death. While there, he spots a nurse who appears to take joy in patients dying and catches her cutting out obituary clippings of someone who just passed away under her care, à la an Angel of Death-style killer.
This means trouble: Nurse Mary is the same nurse who’s treating their father. After a little investigating, he discovers she’s been injecting him with potassium nitrate, a substance that could quietly kill him without suspicion within a few days of use. Together, he and Harry decide she needs to be stopped.
So, Dexter gets to work. He sneaks into her apartment and covers the scene in plastic. When Mary arrives home, he clumsily but successfully attacks her, missing Deb’s volleyball game as he does. Taunting her for her crimes, he soon commits and plunges a knife into her.
He then drives out to the swamp, sinking her body into the water where the alligators dispose of the rest. He also keeps her earrings, a move which he later notes as being a “terrible mistake.”
A new life for Dexter Morgan
Dexter pulls into his driveway the next day, panicking when he finds several police cars waiting for him. But they’re not there to arrest him – they’re dropping off piles of food to support the kids while Harry’s in hospital.
It’s there he meets Tanya, who tells him she’s heard about his interest in the crime scene photos, and after speaking to his surgery professor, offers him an internship on the forensics team.
Deb forgives Dexter for missing her volleyball game, and the two form a united front at his graduation. Fortunately, Harry soon gets better, and the two kids bring him home.
Harry and Dexter address his kill, with Harry being vigilant that Dexter didn’t leave any evidence behind. Dexter confesses that the whole bloody event felt “right”, causing Harry to cry when Dexter leaves the room.
The next day, with a fresh haircut and a new attitude, Dexter starts his first day at the internship with Harry.
For more, find out where you can watch Original Sin, and keep an eye on the full release schedule. Otherwise, check out all the true crime we’re obsessed with right now.
